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Tuesday, March 29, 2016

There is great excitement over President Obama's visit to Cuba and his talks with Raul Castro. And in Cuba Obama pushed the American line about the need for Cuba to embrace human rights and democracy.

Did you ever wonder why America was so furious at Cuba. Her excuses over the last few decades were generally that Cuba wasn't a democracy and she was a communist country right on American's door step.

Pretty wild when you consider that America has, with the possible exception of her Marshall plan in Europe (and the motivations there were otherwise)* has never, not ever, not once promoted democracy anywhere in the world. In fact just the opposite is the case. John Perkins in his book Confessions of an Economic Hit Man describes the process. First America sends in what he calls the Hit Man. This is an operative, such as John was, who with a combination of the carrot and the stick tries to persuade a new head of the government, whether elected, appointed or elevated to the position in a coup that he should cooperate with American aims. This generally involves allowing American companies free rein in the country.

* The shoring up of Europe after the war, including Germany had a positive motivation, at least by Marshall, of not repeating the mistakes after the first world way and beggaring Germany, leading to the second. However the main motivations were A, to have a bulwark against Russia and B, to weaken Great Britain vis a vis her empire and to take over her world interests. Do you realize that the quid pro quo for Lend Lease was access to British markets and military bases around the world.

If the Hit man doesn't succeed, America sends in the so called Jackals. These are generally CIA operatives who disrupt the country and get the glorious leader deposed or in some cases killed in order to get a more compliant person leading the country.

If that doesn't work, they use false flag operations and the army.

One of the systems the Hit men use is to give the country huge loans for, for instance, the development of a hydro electric scheme. The pricing is far above the value of the project and the client country doesn't see a cent (except for bribes to the glorious leader and arms for the army that he uses to keep his own people in line). An America company such as Haliburton (Dick Cheney) does the work and gets the money. When the country defaults on the loan (from the American bank mis-named The World Bank) America agrees to take payment in various ways such as the resources of the country.

As for Communism, which America complains about*, the only country I know that actually has had real communism is Israel. Her Kibutzim were actual communism. Not dictatorships aka Russia or China. And Israel is America's staunchest friend.

*The new word she uses to justify doing anything she wants anywhere in the world is Terrorism.

No, the truth is that America was pissed off at Cuba and Fidel because it is the only example I can think of where a local took back his country for the benefit of his own people and kicked out American mining companies and agricultural companies who were ripping off Cuba and turning her people into serfs.

Generally, America loves to have a dictator in charge of a country. If he can be corrupted, he will spread the largess to a few concentric rings of people and the army and keep control of the country for his own pecuniary benefit and serve the American corporatocracy. America is not keen on having a democracy because each time there is a change of government, she has to start the corruption process over again and who knows what sort of patriot could be elected and prove difficult.

What America dislikes most of all, though, is a dictator who is against America. Fidel Castro once joked that if there was an Olympics for foiling the most American assasination attempts, he would be the clear winner. And it is unlikely that Cuba would have stayed out of the clutches of America if she had had a democracy. Only a dictator could act fast and effectively enough to stave off the constant attempts of America to get Cuba back under her thumb. The Bay of Pigs was a good example. First America flew reconasance over Cuba, then bombed her air fields and then sent in the rag tag army of Cuban exiles in the certain knowledge that the president would send in the regular army when the Cuban exiles failed.

Fortunately they didn't count on President Kennedy who scuppered that neat little plan. This is one of a number of possible reasons why he was shot down in Texas. He thought of the Joint Chiefs of Staff as a bunch of delusional old men and wanted to break up the venal CIA and scatter them to the winds.

What I liked most about the visit by Obama was Raul's comments to Obama. He told Obama that with respect to human rights, Cuba considers affordable medical care for all her citizens and free education are both human rights and America should up her game before criticizing Cuba. Sad for Obama since, at least as far as medical care goes, he fought for this. However he had to 'take it' in his position as president.

Later. Fidels message to the Cuban people was Beware of Americans bearing gifts*.

Now we have the sad spectacle of the primary elections, even in the inappropriately named Democratic party between Sanders and Clinton. One would expect this from the Republicans but one would hope that a party called Democrat would have more respect for the concept. Look, for instance at the discrepancy between the voting in each state and the exit poles. Also have a look at:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2togSItA77E

* Fidel Castro made some pretty negative comments about Obama's visit stating essentially that Cuba doesn't need hand outs from the US. Some commentators in the USA talked as if Fidel was rambling and out of touch with the Cuban people. If there is a disconnect, it is the Cuban people who are out of touch with their leader. They would be wise to listen to the old fox.

Have you noticed that America still has sanctions in place against Cuba. If America was serious about good relations with Cuba they would simply remove these sanctions and let Cuba access the American market with her products. Instead she is keeping the sanctions in place to be used to bargan with Cuba to get her businesses back into Cuba. America business would dearly love to get back to the Batista situation in which American business dominated Cuba and Cubans provided cheap labour. Cuba should listen to her old revolutionary. He knows what he is talking about.